Everyone wants feedback—until it actually happens
The World of Difference gives teams language for giving feedback on behaviour. The feedback is linked to what the map shows, which makes the other person less likely to become defensive. You also see how you give feedback and how someone with a preference for another Area may prefer to receive or interpret it.
Knowing how to give feedback is usually not the problem. People know how to phrase it. It becomes difficult when it really matters, because then it can feel as if you are saying something about the person rather than about what happened.
Three things that change the conversation
Talking about behaviour quickly becomes talking about someone. The map puts the behaviour on the table, and that changes the tone.
From explanation to habit
Hans Anders did not use the map as a one-off. It returns three times in the leadership programme, each time with a different question.
Step 1 - Everyone on the map
First, gain insight into your own behavioural preference and those of your colleagues. Without that, feedback remains a technique you apply instead of a conversation you have.
Step 2 - Practise with real situations
Not with textbook cases, but with what happened in the team last week. On the floormap, it becomes clear what caused the tension.
Step 3 - Keep the language alive
Feedback only sticks with repetition. Teams that continue to use the map in meetings turn it into a habit that lasts.
What a map does not solve
The map gives a culture language and a place to talk. It does not create the willingness to use it. Two conditions come first.
Frequently asked questions
Below you will find the questions we hear most often, with clear answers.
How do you make feedback less personal?
By linking it to behaviour on the map instead of to the person. You discuss what happened and which area each of you was looking at it from. That keeps it about the situation without it becoming a personal attack.
Does this replace feedback training?
No, the two work well together. Feedback training teaches you how to phrase something. The map shows how feedback travels between the Areas: how you deliver it, and how the other person receives it.
Does this work in teams where things are already tense?
Usually yes, because the map forms a safe layer between participants for holding the conversation about behaviour.
How do we keep this going after the session?
By letting the language come back in normal work: in meetings, in one to one conversations and in the appraisal cycle. Guides usually build in follow up sessions or short refresher moments for this.
